First ride on the Mercier this morning and it went well. Climbs reasonably well, hammers along on the flats and downhills quite nicely (though not quite as well as my much heavier Univega). Very comfortable ride too. Naturally for a first ride it wasn't perfect, i had set the high limit screw on the front derailleur too far in, so when i tried to stop it scrubbing in the smallest gears on the back the cable let go (luckily it just pulled through instead of snapping). Grabbed a shifter from a servo and sorted it enough to get to work and fix things properly. Also had the seatpost too low but that's ok now too.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Just to lower the tone ...here is an old clunker a neighbour was given (who passed it onto me) Probably from a recent kerbside cleanupI didn't have to do much. The old tyres still pumped up. The front wheel spokes were rusty so I replaced them with old stainless ones.I polished everything alloy and actually dismantled the cheap alloy brakes and cleaned and painted all the rusty parts so they look like new.Replaced the old suntour friction drivetrain with the first 6 speed accushift. It works ~ okay. Added aero brake levers.Glued seat vinyl where it gaped. Polished old paintwork.Handlebar tape was in my possession for many years and looked grey on the outside. Sadly it looks a bit too mauve rolled out!Anyway a heavy but nice little bike I passed straight on to a friend for his young son's first roadie. (makes me feel generous but I actually spent little but some time on it)Seers seems to have been a bike shop in South Austraia

That is a really nice bike man. Well done on the resto.Painting is something that gets easier with practise, as you can probably attest. I used rattle cans from Bunnings on the Vetta viewtopic.php?f=23&t=530&start=950#p811996 and was happy with the outcome. Primer + 3 coats of colour with 1200 wet rub in between, and 2 coats of clear on that. Not perfect but pretty good for a buget job. Trick is to let it dry thoroughly between coats up to a week with enamel and then to let it cure for a month or so after that.

cotterpin wrote:Great thread, like a good book, just can't put it down.Good to read the Mercier re-birth went well despite the usual but minor bugs.Look forward to the coming chapters Cheers

I think that's about the nicest comment ever to grace the interwebs! I know i'm not the next Bike Snob but i try and put up stuff that people will be interested in, thanks mate .

And here is the next chapter just for you, this morning i headed out on the Mercier again, put in 81k at an average of 31.3kmh, same story as the first ride, not a great climber but on flat to rolling roads with the legs doing their bit she will really motor. Everything settled nicely so she'll be all good to go in the L'Eroica long course.

Finally sorted out a problem with the electricity in the shed so i could get the heaters going again and got another coat of clear on Tom and the Peugeot, as i have all the bits ready to go i should be able to get Tom together by the end of the week, can't wait. The parts for the Peugeot need a lot of cleaning up yet.

And i finally got the Tarini finished off (with the exception of the front derailleur, i'm still waiting for the braze on adaptor clamp to turn up), apologies for the photo but it will have to do for now.

Yummy. And it was great to use normal bar tape after the fake leather stuff i used on the Lawrencia and Mercier, it was a walk in the park in comparison.

Tomorrow i unfortunately have to work as a colleague is away (but at least that means i will be able to sandblast the Viscount forks and see if there's any issues with them), then that night or Tuesday i'm hoping to get the Healing rims masked up. Which reminds me that i need to start panicking about getting the rims sorted out for the ladies Healing, i haven't even started on them yet!

And i've almost got my 'Tweed' outfit sorted for the show n shine, the key ingredient is a pair of trousers which are actually brown corduroy (sexy i know, and i don't think anyone needs to see that just yet ).

@koen, that looks pretty good, when i first saw it i got all excited thinking it was a Huffy/Kent type of thing sold by that big american chain, til i read your description and realised the store is spelt Sears.

@BRLVR, that Vetta looks very nice, did you just sand between the primer and colour or after each coat? I haven't done any sanding on mine, haven't needed to (yet, fingers crossed). And what was the weather like when you did yours, with the weather i had for the Mercier painting it was 'cured' (my definition being lack of a paint smell) within a day or two, i've heard some people say with a professional oven it can be a matter of hours.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

@BRLVR, that Vetta looks very nice, did you just sand between the primer and colour or after each coat? I haven't done any sanding on mine, haven't needed to (yet, fingers crossed). And what was the weather like when you did yours, with the weather i had for the Mercier painting it was 'cured' (my definition being lack of a paint smell) within a day or two, i've heard some people say with a professional oven it can be a matter of hours.

Oooooh Tarini looks nice. Is Tange 2, yeah?

Sand between each colour coat, not to take out runs but to provide an even and grippy surface for the next coat to adhere to. Hung my frame in the sun to cure. Even if you think it's cured that early poke your finger nail into an obscure spot and you will find it causes an indentation. If it's still that soft it's not cured. Without an oven to hasten things along the best I could do was long periods in the sun and then a month just sitting in my shed with a good air flow around it. I read up heaps on the retro section of a major US forum on the ins and outs of using enamel. I'm not really one to say that I enjoy the painting process, and wouldn't do it unless I really needed too again, but I think the fact that this time I did it slowly and had no real deadline or planned time line helped. In fact my whole build was done extra slow with a focus on small detail and meticulous setting up and pre measured tuning etc... Every thread and metal to metal interface smeared with a film of grease. As you would apreciate with you're experience of builds it's nice to ride a bike that you've put so much effort into and know that it's probably more thoroughly constructed and double checked than anything that's OTR or rolled out of a shop.

Cheers dave

PS. Ever thought about a brifter conversion on a retro steely for the best of both worlds?

Yep Tange 2, the frame and forks set me back a smidgen over $100, not bad i reckon.

Interesting to read what you're saying about curing, the Mercier got lots of sun but the weather turned when it was time for the Lawrencia, and all she got was the fan heaters for a couple of hours a day for about a week (the Lawrencia is acrylic though FWIW). Neither of them is soft at all, and when my clumsy butter fingered self has made a boo boo whilst building them it has been a proper scratch rather than any indication that it's soft. Really hearing you on the extra slow building, i did that with the Mercier and it went so well that i've realised it's the way to go, take as much time as required to get everything just right.

I have definitely thought about brifters, but haven't yet come across a steely that climbs well enough to justify it (i need all the help i can get when it comes to hills ). I actually really like using DT shifters too.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Just about to start popping the parts on the Tom Wallace, i'm really excited/nervous about this one, wondering if it's going to look right. It's a mix of old and new (by necessity due to the cost of going all old) and i have no idea if it will work aesthetically speaking. Only one way to find out!

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

A bit of a difficult 24hrs, started building the Tom Wallace and the headset doesn't fit (crown race is loose and the stack is way too big). Oh and then i found out the front wheel won't fit as the axle is too fat. Should have known of course. So now what, the wheels set me back a fair bit so i can hardly just throw them in the shed as spares, but making the fork dropouts larger seems like a really bad idea . At least the BB and cranks went on fine.

First ride on the Lawrencia today, did a section of the L'Eroica course and it went reasonably well, though very sketchy on the dirt downhills. Was going well, and then about 2-3k out of cooroy i noticed some wobbling through one of the pedals. Stopped thinking it was a loose pedal (which i could have fixed) and the left crank arm had come loose . Had to Michael Milton it the rest of the way to cooroy, luckily the racq service centre allowed me to borrow a socket so i could get back to noosa easily enough.

Got the bent forks for the Peugeot off to a local frame builder to get sorted, should be ready on the weekend and very reasonable cost. Might also be able to get a set of decals for the Viscount.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

cotterpin wrote:Hi Idrcycles, If the Tom Wallace fork ends look something like the image below, your local frame builder should have no trouble filing them out to to a larger diameter

Or... you could file symmetrical flats on the axles which is what I did to make a modern set of track wheels fit my Gillott. It had chrome tips on the forks so I wasn't going to file the frame in this case. Altering the frame is probably the better bet as that means most currently available wheelsets will fit. The old smaller axle size is pretty rare these days even in second hand hubs.Or.. if the hub is a cup and cone type you can get an older style axle and replace the current axle. There are plenty of old axles around (I've probably got a couple in the shed). Any old Normandy front hub will have a French axle of about the right size.

You might be able to get the headset to fit by using a 'Coke can' shim inside the headtube which is a strip of metal cut from a coke can wrapped around the outside of the headset insert. However if the stack is too tall then you need to look for an older style headset which were of a smaller stack height than was popular after about 1980.Campag (and other makes) track headsets have a pretty low stack height and have got me out of trouble a few times, also some cheaper Tange and 'no-name' JIS headsets made for low-end bikes are often usable and look OK.CheersRichard

Thanks very much for the tip about filing the axle, i should have thought of that myself, that's an excellent solution as i really don't want to do anything to the old girl that can't be easily changed back. The hubs are new sealed bearing Novatec ones, so i'm not fussed about filing the axles, and those are the only wheels i would use on this frame.

As for the headset i had thought about using a shim to get the crown race seated properly, but as the stack is too high i will just use the headset on another bike and get a new headset with the right stack for Tom.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Clydesdale Scot wrote:When needed, the flats on my axles are only as wide as each fork end.

That's a good idea! Generally speaking tho' there is no disadvantage to continuing the flats out to the end if you are confident in your use of the file (or use a miller). The remaining thread is well able to support the load put on it by the wheel nut. Some older axles were actually like this from new, I'm assuming so they could be used in either sized front dropout with the proper alignment?

I took Tom to the bike shop this arvo to see about getting another headset with less stack (no luck) and afterwards, approaching an intersection, an idiot in a crumbledore pulled out right in front of me. If i had been doing more than the limit, or wasn't paying attention, i would have been straight through his door. Slammed on the brakes and everything went flying, including Tom who had been resting on the back seat wrapped up in a soft blanket to make sure he couldn't get scratched. So much for that, thumb sized chunk of paint gone from the front of a fork leg . Absolutely gutted, i had done such a good job on it and now i have to fix that.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

I've painted 1 frame with enamel paint, won't use it again. It might have been just my technique, but I found if I waved a spanner within 20cm of the frame it would chip, or even if I looked at it at an unusual angle it would chip! Maybe the Qld climate will allow it to dry and hold a bit better than Tassie's.

Had some difficulties but managed to get further ahead on a few things. Got the straightened Peugeot forks back from the frame builder and popped the rear derailleur on the frame (i'll get the forks painted up this week), finally got the braze on adapter clamp so i could fit the front derailleur to the Tarini (though i wasn't able to get the cable fitted), and did some tolerable panel beating on the Healing mudguards and got some etch primer on them ready to start painting during the week. I'm annoyed that i wasn't able to get more done due to lack of time but beggars can't be choosers. And i managed to get my hands on a 1987 Peugeot Avoriaz for nothing which was cool . I can't even begin to list the amount of work coming up, especially once i get the Healings back from the powdercoaters (and the Viscount is going in, decals on their way from H Lloyds). Much as i enjoy this stuff i will be looking forward to a good rest after the L'Eroica, and restoring no more than one bike at a time!

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Tange Passage has about the lowest stack height of any (especially budget priced) current headsets. Available chrome, satin or black. 26.4 mm crown race dia. 10.3mm high lower bearing. These are pretty cheap.TonyPS. Like your Noosa threads (clothes) by the way.

ldrcycles wrote:I took Tom to the bike shop this arvo to see about getting another headset with less stack (no luck) and afterwards, approaching an intersection, an idiot in a crumbledore pulled out right in front of me. If i had been doing more than the limit, or wasn't paying attention, i would have been straight through his door. Slammed on the brakes and everything went flying, including Tom who had been resting on the back seat wrapped up in a soft blanket to make sure he couldn't get scratched. So much for that, thumb sized chunk of paint gone from the front of a fork leg . Absolutely gutted, i had done such a good job on it and now i have to fix that.

Can you possibly get away with putting coloured bands (decals or the like) around the forks to hide the chipped area? Lots of older bikes did have fork bands of one sort or another.CheersRichard

ldrcycles wrote:I took Tom to the bike shop this arvo to see about getting another headset with less stack (no luck) and afterwards, approaching an intersection, an idiot in a crumbledore pulled out right in front of me. If i had been doing more than the limit, or wasn't paying attention, i would have been straight through his door. Slammed on the brakes and everything went flying, including Tom who had been resting on the back seat wrapped up in a soft blanket to make sure he couldn't get scratched. So much for that, thumb sized chunk of paint gone from the front of a fork leg . Absolutely gutted, i had done such a good job on it and now i have to fix that.

Can you possibly get away with putting coloured bands (decals or the like) around the forks to hide the chipped area? Lots of older bikes did have fork bands of one sort or another.CheersRichard

Good thinking richard, but he didn't have anything like that originally so im just going to suck it up and respray it (by respray i mean sanding back a little around that area and touching it up, not stripping the whole thing ).

Thanks redrover, and i did some rummaging about last night and i think i might have a headset to fit, it's off a mid 80s bit of gaspipe so it's one of those very thin ones with a top 'cone' that is just serrated, no spanner flats. I'll be able to try fitting it this arvo so i'll soon find out.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

Great news, the Avoriaz i picked up is only a 52cm, so i can't be tempted into restoring it . Got some more work done in a very brief window of opportunity today, forks off the Peugeot Iseran have their first coat of black on, 2nd coat of green on the Healing rims and final coat of primer on the mudguards for the same. Almost got the BB into the Peugeot but ran out of time.

When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments- Elizabeth West.

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